Fertility Answers - Helping Build Families

Minimal-Stim IVF

Our less invasive Minimal-Stim IVF treatment utilizes less medication to stimulate the ovaries

A study of conventional IVF results has shown that the typical stimulation used for the majority of IVF cycles results in many eggs, some of which are decreased quality. In addition, extra eggs retrieved may mean excess embryos to later freeze (cryopreserve). Many patients would prefer to have no excess embryos – either because they already have children and don’t want the burden of disposing of extra embryos, or because they are ethically opposed to cryopreserving embryos. Our minimally invasive IVF treatment Minimal-Stim IVF utilizes much less medication to stimulate the ovaries which results in fewer eggs.

Ideal candidates for Minimal-Stim IVF are patients who have had a previous tubal ligation with proven fertility (i.e., you have become pregnant in the past) or patients wishing to minimize the chance of extra embryos to freeze. Minimal-Stim IVF also requires fewer monitoring visits and much less medicine thereby costing much less than a full IVF cycle. If you are interested in this minimally invasive IVF treatment, contact our Louisiana fertility clinic to determine if you are a candidate.

Minimal-Stim IVF provides an exciting option worth exploring for patients interested in learning about their options to building a family

With this minimally invasive IVF treatment, the patient goes through the same steps as a standard IVF cycle, but with much less medication to stimulate the ovaries that would produce multiple egg follicles. As a result, patients doing Minimal-Stim IVF should expect to get less eggs. When compared to conventional IVF, this minimally invasive IVF treatment will help save the patient money and lower their risk of getting pregnant with multiples (when compared to IUI treatment).

However, Minimal-Stim IVF may not be as successful as other treatment options and is not ideal for everyone

  • While cost is generally lower for Minimal-Stim IVF, if the cycle is not successful, then the costs can actually be greater in the long run.
  • With conventional IVF, if one cycle doesn’t work, you usually will have some embryos left over to freeze, which can be used during a frozen embryo transfer (FET); with Minimal-Stim IVF, you are less likely to have any extra embryos to freeze for future cycles.
  • There is also a greater risk of having no eggs to fertilize when using this minimally invasive IVF treatment. Not every egg that is retrieved in a cycle will produce a healthy embryo. As an example, with conventional IVF, if 10 eggs are retrieved, it’s possible that only 5 may become fertilized, and just 3 may become healthy embryos to transfer. Since Minimal-Stim IVF retrieves less eggs on average than conventional IVF, the chances are greater that you may end up with no healthy embryos.
  • This minimally invasive IVF treatment is not ideal for every patient. It is probably best reserved for those patients with proven fertility who have a higher chance of having good quality eggs.